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For once, Big O launches a big airball

NBA legend Oscar Robertson's comments on Steph Curry and lack of NBA defenses are out of touch and out of time.

When Big O speaks, people listen. Even when one of the NBA’s all-time legends is out of touch and out of sync with the game.

In the case of Steph Curry, Oscar Robertson was way off base.

A week ago, Robertson told ESPN hosts Mike and Mike that while Curry is a tremendous shooter, he’s not facing very good defenses. Or coaches.

“If I’ve got a guy who’s great shooting the ball outside, don’t you want to extend your defense out a little bit,” Robertson asked the hosts in a phone interview. “I just don’t think coaches today in basketball understand the game of basketball. They don’t know anything about defenses. They don’t know what people are doing on the court. They talk about analytical basketball and stuff like that.”

And Curry inflicted the game-winning dagger from 35 feet to beat the Thunder in overtime, creating reactions that nearly crashed Twitter.

Need another rebuttal? Warriors coach Steve Kerr delivered one that was both tongue-and-cheek and scathing in consecutive sound bytes to Fox Sports.

“I could have stopped this back in my time,” said Kerr, who once was a sharpshooter for the Chicago Bulls alongside Michael Jordan. “Boy, I would have shut Steph down.”

Kerr wasn’t done. “Because athletes, you know, 50 years ago were much bigger, stronger and faster, more finely tuned. So Steph might not have made it in the league.”

Big O, you’ve been officially served.

Listen, Oscar Robertson is an all-time great and a class act. During the 1960-61 season, he became the first NBA player to average a triple-double for the entire year.

Robertson’s words have weight, normally.

Not this time.

Steph Curry is the best pure shooter of a generation, if not all time. His range is unparalleled in basketball history, he can create from any spot on the floor and he would have given the Dream Team fits.

Big O? This time, your comments are a big no, no, no.

Editor’s note: Morning Ticker welcomes Doug Segrest as a new Featured Author. Segrest is a veteran sports writer who primarily covered college sports and professional baseball at the Nashville Banner and The Birmingham News, where he was named Tennessee and Alabama Sports Writer of the Year. He’s also the co-host of the highly rated “The Zone” talk show.